Blackburn's owners are killing a great club, says former Rovers defender Salgado

Michel Salgado has described his old club Blackburn’s demise under Indian owners Venky’s as ‘crazy and outrageous’.

The former Real Madrid defender also hit out at the Indians for summoning caretaker manager Gary Bowyer to Pune for crisis talks this week which meant he missed two days of training when Blackburn have just six games to save themselves from relegation to League One.

‘I’m not surprised because the things that are happening are totally outside of football,’ said Salgado. ‘The decisions are made in a different way to any other club in the world.

‘When you are playing for your life,
like they are now in this relegation fight, they need to stick together,
train more than ever, and prepare better than ever for the games.

‘But instead of that, the manager is in Pune instead of being on the training ground.

‘The decision makers should be heading
over to England to talk to the manager so as not to disrupt the match
preparations. It’s crazy and outrageous everything that has happened.’

Salgado, 37, was released in January
last year amid claims that he, Ryan Nelsen and Jason Roberts had been
frozen out of the club’s plans because more first-team appearances would
have triggered a new contract offer and cost the owners money.

It was a far cry from the noises made
by Venky’s when they took over in November 2010, claiming they were in
the market to sign the likes of David Beckham and Ronaldinho.

Instead, having replaced Sam Allardyce
with Steve Kean, they were relegated from the top-flight and are now on
their fifth manager this season including caretakers.

‘Blackburn’s situation really saddens me,’ added Salgado, who joined Blackburn in 2009 after a decade at the Bernabeu.

‘I loved my time at Blackburn, apart from the last six months which had nothing to do with me or football.

‘To be honest, when they first arrived at Blackburn it was really exciting times.

Trouble: Jordan Rhodes strikes home a penalty in Blackburn's 3-2 loss to Sheffield Wednesday last weekend

‘All they spoke about was developing
something really good for the future of the club. But everything changed
in the space of two months.

‘There were so many players in and out, the manager was replaced and so many strange things began to happen at the club.

‘I speak to a lot of fans and from my
point of view it’s very sad to see this amazing, historic club in this
situation, facing a relegation battle in the Championship, when just two
years ago they finished 10th in the Premier League with a promising
group of players.

‘I hope something happens where there
are huge changes and Blackburn return to the Premier League. But the
problem will not be fixed in a short time because so many changes have
to be made.’